Fakemink’s dropped yet another underground rap banger with Crush

There’s much music out there and sometimes it’s hard to keep up.

Rather than letting the algorithm dictate your music taste, you can listen to Rated by THE FACE – a playlist that’s updated by our (human) editorial team every week.

Addison Rae – Arcamarine

Manifestation is real. Just ask Addison Rae who, after telling Vogue she’d love to work with Arca last year, has just blessed us with Arcamarine – the experimental artist’s sultry and slowed remix of her recent single Aquamarine. Arca’s rework slides a sexy reggaeton beat under lyrics about ​“not hiding any more” and ​“being free”. Fittingly, the accompanying video shows Addison writhing around in the back of a pickup truck in a hot pink bikini, with soft blur edits that look like they were made on the Photo Booth app back in 2014. TL

Cecile Believe – Spark ft. Yunè Pinku

If you’ve been revisiting SOPHIE’s back catalogue this year, then you may have reconnected with the voice of LA-via-Montreal artist Cecile Believe, who appeared on the late producer’s posthumous single My Forever and six songs from her 2018 album Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides. Cecile’s tender new track Spark kicks off with a palpitating Jersey kick drum, before giving way to euphoric breaks, an alt rock segment with breathy vocals from Yunè Pinku and an epic trance finale. DR

Sofie Royer – Babydoll

Master of the subtle electro-pop banger Sofie Royer strikes again with Babydoll, a luxurious-sounding song about ​“the desire to fit in and needing to perform in society”. On the tongue-in-cheek track, which opens Sofie’s new album Young-Girl Forever, the Austrian-Iranian artist takes inspiration from Erving Geoffman’s 1956 sociology book Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, fluctuating between English and French lyrics and poking fun at what’s expected of women. JW

John Glacier – Found

Hear, ye, hear ye. East London poet/​rapper/​genius John Glacier is finally releasing a new album, Like A Ribbon (not to be confused with her recent EP of the same name) on Valentine’s Day. The project’s lead single, Found, is about trusting the process even when things are going to shit. John’s moving lyricism is set to a euphoric, melancholy beat courtesy of longtime collaborator Kwes Darko. JW

Fakemink – Crush

You’d have to be seriously dedicated to keep up with all of Fakemink’s music. The underground rapper has dropped over 50 tracks this year, and Crush is one of two songs he released last week. But it’s worth tapping in, because there’s something addictive and compelling about his crunchy, smoked-out sound. In an interview with the No Bells blog, the 19-year-old said that he named his 2023 album London’s Saviour to try and change a music scene that he felt was ​“all trash”. He exudes that same cockiness on Crush, promising that him and his close ally Ghostinnafurcoat are ​“about to fuck this shit up.” DR